It was the first weekend in April, and I was headed back west along the Columbia River - this time with Andy! The biggest swap meet around happens in Portland each year, and it had been a couple of years since he had been, and I had yet to experience it. This time, it worked really well to stay with Suzie again, avoiding a hotel or a commute from Independence each morning. We got there on Thursday to be able to get first dibs when the gates opened on Friday. The commute was easy and we found free parking and walked our feet off on the grounds of the Expo Center. The buildings AND parking lots are full of booths! Andy had a list, and we set out to find everything on it. By end of day, we were lugging 4 rusty 5-on-5 wheels to the car and a backpack with other smaller goodies.
I'd had enough of walk-shopping for car parts, and copped out on Saturday. Andy headed to the Portland International Raceway, and I headed to the Columbia Gorge for a hike with Colleen and Suzie - and Jersey of course. On the way there, I got a call from Andy - he'd found the biggest item on the shopping list! - 4 tires, complete with wheels and hub caps in good shape!! So now the rusty ones can find a new home....eventually...i think? :)
Anyhow, my sisters and I chose to find the Punchbowl Falls this time around, and the hike proved to be mildly adventurous and very scenic (lots of pics to follow)
Much of the trail was like this - packed dirt hugging the cliff, with a steep drop-off down to the river. The sun was brightly shining, and I was experimenting with my new lens filters...so pardon the glare :) The warmth of it sure felt good!
Jersey had
sooo many new smells to figure out as we trekked along. I think she's sniffing something in most of my pictures...and of course the girls are
lookin' happy. We're hiking!
There was also this part of the trail where they had a cable in the cliff side to hold on to as you traipsed over the wet, rocky trail and were rained on from the overhanging rock above. Fun little adventure.
We made it!!
To get more of a feel for the scenery along the trail...
We arrived at Lower Punchbowl first, where the hiking book we had told us we could "peer upstream" for a glimpse of Upper Punchbowl.
So we leaned out over the river and tried to see. Then waded out a little into it, and leaned some more...and all we could see was this wimpy drainage along the
cliffside. Beautiful in its own way, but there was no way this was the big falls!
So we wrung out our socks and pant legs and decided to hike up the trail more to another place they said you could see Punchbowl.
And, we did find it! But, you were way above and far back from them - held back with a thick rope fence. This is as close as we could get...
But, we decided to hike up the trail a little more and see what there was, and we found a little side "trail", if you could even call it that, and slid down it and climbed around until we were right above the roaring falls! Here's my timid attempt of putting the camera out over the edge to catch a glimpse (Colleen caught a better one, if you check her blog):
We then looked back downstream and saw a
die-hard photographer in chest waders, carrying his gear and a tripod to the middle of the river in order to catch that "glimpse" the book was telling us about! The cheater. :)
The return hike was mellow - we'd already seen the scenery and just meandered back to the car enjoying the sunshine and time together. We passed a lot more people going this direction, and were very glad that we didn't hike it at the peak time of day.
However, at one bend in the trail, we looked up and saw some young deer grazing - completely peaceful even with all the foot traffic going by below.
Ahhh...what a perfect afternoon...
That evening, Greg and Margaret drove up to take Andy and I to dinner. We did a little shopping while waiting the hour for a table at the popular P.F. Chang's, and it was well worth it. I had some absolutely delicious shrimp in a creamy sauce with honeydew melon. A pretty good combo, it turns out!
We realized on the way home, that it was one of the most all-encompassing trip we've taken. What's better than a weekend that involves his family, my family, AND car stuff!?!
Much of the trail was like this - packed dirt hugging the cliff, with a steep drop-off down to the river. The sun was brightly shining, and I was experimenting with my new lens filters...so pardon the glare :) The warmth of it sure felt good!
Jersey had sooo many new smells to figure out as we trekked along. I think she's sniffing something in most of my pictures...and of course the girls are lookin' happy. We're hiking!
We made it!!
To get more of a feel for the scenery along the trail...
We arrived at Lower Punchbowl first, where the hiking book we had told us we could "peer upstream" for a glimpse of Upper Punchbowl.
So we leaned out over the river and tried to see. Then waded out a little into it, and leaned some more...and all we could see was this wimpy drainage along the cliffside. Beautiful in its own way, but there was no way this was the big falls!
So we wrung out our socks and pant legs and decided to hike up the trail more to another place they said you could see Punchbowl.
And, we did find it! But, you were way above and far back from them - held back with a thick rope fence. This is as close as we could get...
But, we decided to hike up the trail a little more and see what there was, and we found a little side "trail", if you could even call it that, and slid down it and climbed around until we were right above the roaring falls! Here's my timid attempt of putting the camera out over the edge to catch a glimpse (Colleen caught a better one, if you check her blog):
We then looked back downstream and saw a die-hard photographer in chest waders, carrying his gear and a tripod to the middle of the river in order to catch that "glimpse" the book was telling us about! The cheater. :)
The return hike was mellow - we'd already seen the scenery and just meandered back to the car enjoying the sunshine and time together. We passed a lot more people going this direction, and were very glad that we didn't hike it at the peak time of day.
Ahhh...what a perfect afternoon...
That evening, Greg and Margaret drove up to take Andy and I to dinner. We did a little shopping while waiting the hour for a table at the popular P.F. Chang's, and it was well worth it. I had some absolutely delicious shrimp in a creamy sauce with honeydew melon. A pretty good combo, it turns out!